I'm a terrible sleeper and it's something that's plagued me since I was old enough to think.
It's like I've been cursed with an overactive mind. I'll go to bed at 10pm but end up back in the living room at 3am with zero sleep achieved and I'll have to sit there until my eyes are droopy enough for me to convince myself I'll be able to get to sleep if I just went back to bed.
Needless to say I'm not the most up-and-at-em in the morning, but this week I thought I'd see if I could do something about that. It all started on Monday, when I couldn't get the hot water to work but showered anyway and realised there might be something in all the hype around cold showers.
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Here's what happened when I showered for a week, and how it changed my life.
Monday
The shower was so punishing that I had to stand out of the stream - which was still freezing in itself given we haven't started putting the heating on - and choose one by one which body part to shove under it. I then applied soap and did it all again.
Thoroughly unenjoyable to say the least. I chose not to wash my hair that day.
I still felt cold after I was fully clothed. I was jumping around a lot, like little hops every now and then like my body was still reacting to the freezing cold water.
Later on in the day I'd expected to be sharper than usual. That wasn't the case and I just felt normal, but that wasn't the end of the world.
Tuesday
I woke up and without thinking went straight for a lovely warm shower. That lasted minutes before I remembered my experiment and turned the heat straight off.
From then on it pretty much went the way of Monday, but I noticed it didn't hurt to be under the cold water as much as it had done. It still didn't feel natural or even slightly nice though, and did leave me dreading Wednesday morning more than I would've usually, and I was left with goosebumps for what felt like hours after, but it definitely was better than Monday.
Wednesday
Wednesday is when I had the breakthrough. I'd woken up at 7am, probably four hours after falling asleep, groggy as you like and suffering.
I turned the shower on and the horrible cold stream caught my arm. No part of me wanted to get in that shower at all, and I was probably there for about ten minutes wasting water and feeling dramatically sorry for myself.
But once again, I started to wash each piece of my body by itself like i'd done on Monday and Tuesday. It was more methodical this time.
It was so methodical that it became boring, and I thought I'd just force myself to stand fully under the stream. It wasn't fun, but, after I'd managed to stop myself gasping it was manageable, and at a point even enjoyable.
I felt sharp, like the hardest part of the day had already been tackled and I could cruise through whatever work I had to do, knowing that though it might be a slog, at least it wasn't cold.
Thursday
Once again I didn't sleep very well and woke up fairly groggy. But, with the knowledge that if I just kept myself under the stream a little longer things would be okay, Thursday's cold shower went well.
It wasn't enjoyable or relaxing as a nice hot shower, but it did leave me feeling ready once again - like it'd taken all the slight discomforts I might experience that morning and gotten them over and done within one.
The main thing is that, at least until lunchtime, I don't think I yawned once. I felt alive and refreshed, probably not as much as I would've if i'd slept well and not had three alarms wake me up, but more than I deserved given my poor sleep.
Friday
I worked late Thursday and woke up early Friday with the usual grogginess I get when I haven't slept well. But I felt kind-of cheery, as I thought I wouldn't be feeling groggy long.
I felt weirdly proud when I showered like I'd passed a test or reached a milestone or something and everything was easy runnings from then on. And it was, Friday's usually a busy day - getting everything sorted and wrapped up before the weekend - but I felt more ready to get it done.
I don't know if I'll continue cold showering. I'll probably have a lie-in tomorrow (Saturday), so I won't be as sleepy throughout the morning, but it's nice to know I've got the cold shower in my arsenal of things like coffee and Redbull to make the mornings after I've slept bad less hard.
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